[Fwd: Font issues (mkfontdir & friends not getting run) with F-8]

Hans de Goede j.w.r.degoede at hhs.nl
Tue Nov 20 12:11:12 UTC 2007


Nicolas Mailhot wrote:
> Le Mar 20 novembre 2007 11:25, Hans de Goede a écrit :
> 
>> Isn't the solution for this problem (missing fonts.dir / fonts.scale)
>> as simple
>> as adding a single guideline that font packages which add a symlink
>> under
>> /etc/X11/fontpath.d MUST ship a pre-generated fonts.dir and
>> fonts.scale, and no
>> try to generate these using scriptlets?
> 
> IIRC pre-shipping these files caused other problems, but I doubt there
> is enough core fonts expertise left to identify them easily (I vaguely
> remember mkfontdir output was dependant on local hardware resolution
> or xorg version). The people who knew core fonts innards dropped it
> like radioactive material as soon as fontconfig was available.
> 
> Whatever solution you choose forcing installation of core fonts
> backend by the main font package is a no-go for modern fonts (TTF/OTF,
> maybe Type 1 too).

What do you mean with the "core fonts backend"?

> You can split the core font scriptlet parts in a
> subpackage, or ship pre-generated files, as long as you do not impact
> the vast majority of users who have no need for core fonts.
> 

Yes, assuming that with the "core fonts backend" you mean mkfontdir & friends, 
then I agree, having a dependency on these is not a good plan, so I see 2 options:
1) Use pregenerated files (I just checked there contents and I see nothing
    different from how they looked in the XFree86 3.x days, so I do not believe
    these are xorg version / arch / dpi dependent). This is the prefered option.
2) The gtk-update-icon-cache way, so conditionally run mkfontdir and friends
    from scripts, if installed. And on installation of mkfontdir, run it for all
    dirs under /etc/X11/fontpath.d

I believe 1 si greatly preferred if we all agree on this I'll try to write 
something for the guidelines about this.

Regards,

Hans




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